Guilty Past
by Smaraya
Summary: You always wanted to know, how Gai saved Inori? Why her song is so sad and how she became a famous singer? What circumstances made Tsugumi, Ayase and Argo join Funeral Parlor? Why Kido is in jail? How Haruka saved Gai's life and much more? Then have a good time with "Guilty Past"! )
1. The girl in the crystal

**The girl in the crystal**

He stopped right in front of the shining crystal, where light blue lines twitched around like flash on its edged surface.

They had sneaked around the first sentinel, skipped the second, eliminated the third, cut the wires of the security cameras and disabled the communication for support and all other safety arrangements. In exactly 120 seconds would the bomb open them their escape way.

Everything went according to the plan.

But until the detonation he had to improvise. Shibungi hadn't found any allusions to technical barriers in the system, which they would have to expect in room E-96. Nevertheless he had prepared himself for resistance, of course, but was now surprised about the missing guards and other security-mechanism. The room was empty – aside from this odd-looking shining tube, which ranged from the ground to the ceiling and was apparently made up of this sort of crystal.

In a fever of excitement he thought about what to do. Time was running out, the clock ticked. Was it really in here, what he was searching for? He wasn't sure about it.

While his eyes scanned the shining and continuously transforming surface for a switch or something similar which would open the vessel, he felt against his wishes more and more relieved. Perhaps he got some wrong information and the GHQ has never tried to …

His eyes fixed suddenly a certain point and his heart skipped a beat. This one thing he has just quickly seen through the deforming layer destroyed his last hope.

A pink wisp of hair.

So it was true.

"What now?", Oogumo asked. He had placed the bomb and now stood beside him again. "Is she in there? How do we get this thing open?"

Instead of answering the young man slowly reached out his hand.

"Don't …!", Oogumo exclaimed, but it was too late.

As his fingertips touched the crystal, a crack appeared which branched out in every direction for about a meter in height and breadth until it finally stopped. Then it clankingly burst in countless shivers, which slowly fell down to the floor.

"That is … Is it her?", Oogumo asked hesitantly. He had moved some steps back and came now closer again.

He wanted to answer, but he couldn't. He ceaselessly stared with eyes wide with fright at the girl in front of him. She sat on the ground, her arms hung slackly down and her head lightly bent over. Her shoulder-length pink hair flowed like silk over her naked body. Her eyes were closed, she seemed to sleep deeply.

 _She looks like her …_ In his mind's eye he saw Mana in front of him, how she smiled at him with empty eyes and blood-red lips, before she burst into flames. He wouldn't allow this to happen again. In this moment he swore to rescue this girl and to cross the government's plan.

For Mana's peace's sake.

For humankind's sake.

At all costs.

"80 seconds left until detonation", he heard Oogumos voice from far. "We have to hurry."

He nodded and hesitantly reached out for her. He clasped her shoulders and gently shook her. Her body was so tender that he was afraid that every small touch would shatter her like the crystal all around her. "Hey, wake up! Can you hear me?"

Before she opened her eyes, she lifted her hands and hold on to his arms. He quivered because of the touch which didn't come from him. Her grasp got stronger and stronger like she wanted to hold on to him and never let go. Involuntarily he wondered, if she possibly spent her entire life in this crystal.

"Do you understand me?", he asked again. More silent seconds passed by, then she slowly opened her eyes. As he looked in her red eyes, he was afraid of shreds of memories of Mana, in which he would lose himself again, but that wasn't the case. Her eyes were different, neither despiteful nor empty. But there was a deep sadness, which broke his heart.

"My name is Gai. Gai Tsutsugami." He took a deep breath and struggled for self-control. _Pull yourself together!_ , he thought. _If we don't stick to the plan, everything is lost._

"Gai … Tsutsugami …", she repeated hesitantly and looked up to him. "Gai …"

"We are here to release you. Can you get up?"

"Get up …?", she repeated with a motionless facial expression.

Gai signed to Oogumo to help her out of her prison, while he put down his rifle, which he had buckled on his shoulder, and took his coat off. After Oogumo had lifted her out of the crystal and softly had helped her standing on her own feet, Gai threw his coat around her shoulders and put the rifle back on.

"We have to –", he began, but an enormous explosion let the earth tremble and carried all three of them off their feet. Gai struggled to his feet, while Oogumo kneeled next to the girl, who frightened clung to his arm. "Oogumo?", he asked shortly.

He shook his head. "27 seconds left", he replied after a fast look on his watch.

Gai clenched his fist. "What's the matter, Shibungi?"

First the communicator in his ear just uttered a random noise and he was afraid it was broken. Then his friend's familiar voice answered.

"Gai …" Coughing. "Gai, they blew up the barricade! Base C got overrun. Invasion in hallway 11!"

"Understood", Gai answered. "Oogumo, abortion!"

With a shocked face and a bustling look on his watch Oogumo jumped up and rushed across the room to the wall, where he recently has fixed the bomb. After almost endless seconds he lifted his clenched fist in the air – signaling "everything ok".

"Please decide earlier on that next time, Gai!", he shouted and slumped down, leaning back against the wall and heavily breathing. "Only 4 seconds left and …!"

"Shibungi, retire. All of you", Gai ordered without paying regard to Oogumo's protest. "Only position A shall hang on as long as possible. We meet up there." He shortly hesitated. "Probably they disable our communication. If we aren't there in 10 minutes, plan B takes effect, understood?"

"Understood, Gai." It rustled again, then everything was quiet.

"Oogumo! Change in escape plan. They'll come towards us on that hallway, whose access you were about to blow up."

"Great." He approached them and helped the girl to stand up. "Where now?"

"Plan A46."

"Underground tunnels, understood."

Gai wasn't able to hide a smile. "After all you memorized them, how I demanded it from everyone." Oogumo didn't answer, but looked embarrassedly aside. "Back there should be the access. The floor plates are probably welded."

Oogumo nodded. "Controlled explosion, my subject area." He hurried ahead, while Gai took care of the girl. She stood so insecurely on her feet that she would probably fall down, if she didn't hang on to someone. In this state walking was impossible.

"Don't get frightened", he warned her in advice before lifting her up and carrying her across the hall on his arms. She was light like a feather. After only a few steps he noticed that her eyes were continuously aimed at him.

"Gai …", she whispered. "Gai Tsutsugami …"

In the distance shoots and shouts could be heard, then another explosion. They didn't have much time left, but it has to suffice. He set her down in a corner of the room and kneeled that way in front of her that fragments of the explosion, which possibly would fly around, couldn't hit her. She still stared at him with half opened eyes while lying motionlessly in front of him. She seemed weak, tired and fragile and her glance let his inside still tremble. Instinctively he grabbed for his cross around his neck.

"Gai Tsutsugami …", she repeated quietly his name again. "Who am I?"

 _Not Mana_ , he thought immediately. _You are not Mana and you mustn't ever become her. She is the ruin and doom of this world, but you are the light and the hope. You are the saving grace of this world. You are the prayer of all humans for a peaceful future._

"Inori", he answered. "You are Inori."


	2. The flower and the nightingale

**The flower and the nightingale**

"She looks so sad." Misaki stood in front of the courtyard's window and twisted a wisp of her long black hair around her fingers while looking outside.

"Are you worried, Misaki?"

She bit her bottom lip before she answered. "Of course! Aren't you, Gai? She's with us for four days now, eats not much and rarely speaks, that's not good for her!"

He looked up from his plans and notes. The last few days he cared about bringing all of their weapons, munitions, technology and especially the Endlave they have stolen from the military by a fluke two weeks ago unseen into their new headquarters. Especially the Endlave's transfer was very difficult, but until now he didn't get any information about anyone being captured.

"She can't talk about anything", he softly replied, "because she doesn't remember the time before her awakening. She's not an ordinary human like us, she was created by Mana's DNS –"

"Don't you ever dare telling her this to her face!", she loudly interrupted him. Her eyes glistened angrily. If he would have been an arbitrary member, she certainly would have hit him, but that way she kept herself under control.

Gai sighed, stood up and faced her. "It's cruel, but the faster she knows the better for her. And the better for us all. I already told her about the virus and why the GHQ –"

"I need fresh air", Misaki harshly interrupted him again. He heard her mumbling something about missing empathy, and then she rushed outside.

Gai looked on the closed door for a while which she slammed with all her might behind her, then he sat down at his desk again. Tomorrow even the last members who had stayed behind would leave this hide-out, and then they could plan their next steps. And he had to admit that he was happy about finally leaving this place behind which was highly undermanned for its size in the meantime.

He had a bad feeling.

And his feeling has never deceived him.

"Inori is really a beautiful name." Misaki hunkered down beside her.

"Gai gave it to me", she said.

"Do you like your name?"

She nodded. She sat on the courtyard's cold cobblestones in her simple black dress and didn't avert her eyes from something on the ground. Misaki lifted surprised her eyebrows as she recognized the object of her interest.

"That's a flower! Between all those stones and just with little sunlight, surprising."

"A flower", Inori repeated and for the first time aimed her eyes at Misaki. "It is … beautiful, isn't it?"

Misaki smiled. "I love its blue-purple petals."

They silently sat side by side for a while. Then Misaki suddenly sneezed, became unbalanced and flopped backwards with a muffled noise. Lying on her back she began to smile about her clumsiness. Then she laughed out loud and finally her laughter rose so much she cried tears. Inori looked at her with big eyes.

"What's wrong?", she asked frightened.

"I … am … happy!", Misaki gasped and tried in vain to prevent herself from giggling. "I am often clumsy. And then I laugh about myself. Then you never have to be embarrassed of anything."

"Happy?" Her eyes got even bigger. "What is it?"

"Happiness is a feeling. If you look at the flower, you are probably happy, too", she explained and wiped the laughter's last tear off her eye. "And if you are happy, you smile."

"Understood." Inori seriously nodded and did something, Misaki never thought could happen: she looked at the flower and smiled.

Misaki hugged Inori without saying a word and she let it happen. "You know what?", she asked then and wiped with the back of her hand across her eyes again. "I know a poem about a flower and perhaps you'll like it!" She waited for Inori's careful nodding, then cleared her throat and closed her eyes.

" _Oh blooming field flower_

 _I beg you, please tell me, why people fight_

 _and hurt each other._

 _Oh valiantly blooming flower,_

 _what can you see from your field?_

 _Why can't people forgive each other?"_

Misaki opened her eyes again and smiled. "My mother often recited it as I was a child and now I'll pass it on to you, what do you think?"

"It's as beautiful as the flower", Inori replied and gave her a smile again. "May I … listen to it once again?"

For the next hour Misaki recited the poem again and again until Inori internalized it and was finally satisfied. Then she told her, how she failed at the organisation's hard training, while she underlined it with wild gestures which made even Inori laugh sometimes.

"But it was worth the trouble at the end", she finished and threw her hair, which looked tousled because of showing many of her failed evasive maneuvers, back over her shoulders. "Now I am one of the best shooters Funeral Parlor has!" Her cheeks burned red of pride.

Inori looked depressed at her. "Why do people fight, Misaki?"

Misaki's smile got sad. "I fear you have to carry on asking the flower, Inori. But I will tell you, why _I_ fight." She focused the flower, whose petals shined silver in the weak light of the setting sun. "I lost my husband and my daughter in a gunfight. The military stormed our housing block while searching for terrorists, who had hidden there. And as they ran away …" She stopped and swallowed the lump in her throat as the pictures of the not too far away past assailed her. "As they ran away the military wasn't squeamish about any civilian casualties and shot down everyone who got in their way." A tear ran down her cheek. "That's another feeling, Inori: sadness."

"Sadness?", she repeated inquiring and moved a bit closer to her. "Are you sad because they have died, Misaki?"

"Yes", she answered and bravely smiled. "This is one of the reasons I fight. Nobody shall have to lose beloved people anymore. I want to protect the innocent and the friends I have found here."

"Are we … friends?"

Misaki nodded and took her hand. "We are friends, Inori."

As she recognized a split second later the telltale reflection of glasses in the house wall's shadow it was already too late. The first shot was fired from ahead and touched her left shoulder lightly while she threw herself on Inori and pushed her to the ground. "Lie still!", she whispered simultaneously grabbing for the two pistols at her belt. With a roll sideways she immediately bounced back and fired off three times against the enemy before he was even able to aim at her again. Silently the uniformed man collapsed. Another bullet hit her right hand and forced her to let go of the pistol. She instantly let herself fall to the ground, turned around and hit the second shooter in his chest.

"Misaki …" Inori slowly sat up with fearful big eyes, shivering all over. "Misaki!"

"Inori, no! Stay -!" The next bullet hit her left shoulder again, but this time it wasn't a grazing shot.

A thought crossed her mind. _They surrounded us. Their aim is certainly Inori. I have to bring her in the house somehow!_ Before she could undertake something, she heard screams.

"You bastards!"

Something exploded behind her and little wall pieces fell to the ground. Definitely Oogumo. She tried to push the pain in her hand aside, burrowed mouth and nose tightly in the crook of her right arm and made use of the smoke to reach Inori. She helped her standing up and pushed her along to the door which led into the house. She noticed Gai shooting from behind the window beside the door. He seemed to shout something to her, but she couldn't understand a thing. The detonation still rang in her ears. But after he disappeared from her sight and cowered under the window, she suddenly knew, what Gai had shouted to her. And she knew that Inori wouldn't reach the door in time.

With a smile on her lips Misaki stopped and spread her arms.

The hail of bullets triggered by the machinegun of a shooter on the opposite roof pierced the upper part of her body and the house's frontage in equal parts. After only a few seconds everything was over, the invader was killed by a directed shot between his eyes.

Inori slumped down in front of the door and stared with wide opened eyes at Misaki's body covered in blood which collapsed like in slow motion and finally lied still at her feet.

Sparkling drops colored the flower blood-red, when Inori's cry split the air.

Cutlery's clatter and loud calls for refill let the worries and fears of the last weeks forget. In the new headquarters was enough room for setting up a big table where they could all eat together. This didn't only lift their spirits but also the discipline of one or two to meet dates on time. Gai overlooked the members and smiled satisfied. Then he saw Inori's place empty again. He wondered why Misaki's death afflicted someone like her so much.

He flashed Shibungi a meaningful glance which he returned. Then he stood up, took Inori's full bowl of rice away from her place and left the eating members while nobody of them noticed him leaving.

How he supposed he found Inori in the courtyard. Unlike the old one this one was much bigger with trees and bushes. In the middle was a square lawn on which Inori sat. The last sunrays of the day fell upon her and let her bright skin look like porcelain.

"You have to eat something, Inori." He bent down and put the bowl beside her.

"Why do people fight, Gai?", she asked without looking at him.

"Everyone will give you a different answer to this."

"I understand." She lowered her head.

"Why do you ask me that?"

"Misaki gave me her answer." Now she focused her red eyes on him "I want to learn how to fight, Gai." He looked surprised at her. "I want to protect others like Misaki protected me."

"If you wish so …", he replied hesitantly, "… then I will teach you." He wasn't sure, if it was a good idea to let _her_ fighting in the front lines. But nothing argued against some knowledge in self-defense at the moment anyway. Any further steps he would have to think about. "I go back to the others and hope you join soon." He turned around and left.

He had almost reached the door when Inori suddenly began to sing. A song about a flower, about fighting and about forgiving. There was such a deep sadness in this melody that his heart wanted to burst. It was a long time since last time he could cry.


End file.
